They are very hard to kill off. I have spider mites attacking my brugmansia this year like mad. The passiflora are nearby but the mites seem to prefer the brugs!! The passiflora have hardly any.. (except the sunburst which mites love for some reason) Lacewings and minute pirate bugs and plain old spiders are also useful in controlling spider mites.
I don't think you should spray a passiflora if you are growing it for fruit. If you did want to try a systemic ( can you use those on passiflora?-I've never tried) for passionflowers that you *won't* grow fruit on ...Ortho systemic works rather well for mites as it goes into the plant and when the mites suck juices they are poisoned... However, it *will* kill all beneficial insects as well including spiders and perhaps lizards. Soap sprays or neem can be used. Alot of people seem to have some success with Neem but as with the soap sprays needs to be reapplied often and neem applied when not too hot.
Good luck those are nasty buggers. It is humid where I live and this is the worst year I've ever had with them...

My Passi' is next to a New Rose Bush (so it's small) and the Rose Bush is Next to a 3yr old Butterfly Bush. My Butterfly Bush is Bare for the first 18" or so because of Mite Damage; it got so infested no matter what I did that I just cleared out the whole bottom of the Plant. Now the Passi like I said is very close and the Mites don't seem to bother it.

The only way I have found to get rid of Mites is Just Spray each Leaf Seperately to get the Mites off. Here is a suggestion someone else had about mites; take the whole plant and cover it with a Clear Plastic Bag; find a way to tie it off; this way it works to create it's own humidity and after 2 - 3 days all the mites will blow up; seems they fill themselves up with the Moisture and they don't stop so they blow up. I haven't tried it; but I may soon.

Today though I saw a bunch of Ants crawling on my Margaret; I really don't like ants at all; they give me that deep shrill inside that grosses me out; I had some Bug Killer from Bayer that I sprayed it with and it killed all the Ants; and then I rinsed it with Water; I know I am not supposed to do that but I am not comfortable with that stuff sitting on my Plants.

Ants like to suck the honey dew type nectar from passionvine leaves like my sunburst has these little nectar dots and ants love em. As long as the ants don't farm aphids on my plants they can stay. That is the rule! lol...
The only bugs that completely gross me out and I will run and scream for the hills is those big huge nasty water beetles that come out of the sewer...Paloverde beetles and basically any huge beetle freaks me out. Someone on the AZ forum put up a pic of a paloverde beetle (talk about flashbacks!!- EEww) My brother used to know this and chase me around with them, he's so gross lol.

I have always had a problem with red spider mites in the greenhouse in winter. Last winter I had wasps that overwintered in there and they completely took care of the mites. It was so neat to see them feeding away on the nasty little creatures. They did not pay any attention to me when I was working in there so I had no fear of being stung. I think the wasp are only dangerous when protecting their nest. Hope they move in again this fall.

Patsy

Thanks for posting that picture, Krstofer. I had never before seen spider mites or the damage they inflict.

About two weeks ago, my incarnata inexplicably stopped growing. I couldn't figure out why, and am not sure I know even now, but when I inspected the plant this morning, I found that nearly every leaf looked like the picture you posted, above. I inspected the underside and, sure enough, the little demons were there. These things are so tiny! I took a look at them under an old microscope I have and they could be siblings with those in your picture -- they're exactly the same.

Do you think this infestation could be what caused my incarnata to stop growing?

-Jon

Hey Jon-
It's possible.. 'Couple of my incarnatas have the same infection, but some don't. Makes me wonder if the mites just haven't made it over there yet, or if some are resistant.

Same thing w/ my 'ruby glow's & sarunatum venosums (voodoo lilies) Some are infected, some aren't. It's strange, but I'm hopefull the ones who aren't stay that way.

I don't know if the mites will cause a plant to stop growing all together- It's possible I suppose with a heavy infestation, but I haven't noticed any of mine doing such a thing.